John AravosisFollow me on Twitter: @aravosis | @americablog | @americabloggay | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn. John Aravosis is the former editor of AMERICAblog, which he founded in 2004. He has a joint law degree (JD) and masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown (1989); and worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, and as a stringer for the Economist. Frequent TV pundit: O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline & Reliable Sources. Bio, article archive.

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I can’t say I’m surprised. I seriously doubt that department has any sort of civilian review board.

It would have been better in the first place if the sheriff had given him a written reprimand and 30 days suspension without pay instead of trying to transfer him to detention.

TuxedoCartman

An update to this story: the sheriff gave the cop in the video his old job back. He was just waiting for the media to lose interest before doing so.

TuxedoCartman

Umm… an update to your update: he’s been rehired back to his old job. The sheriff was just waiting for media hubbub to die down.

“The North Carolina deputy who was forced to resign this week after committing an act of road rage that was caught on video was rehired a few days later, proving that the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office was merely trying to appease the media after drafting a lengthy press release.
Craig Culpepper thanked the lord on his Facebook page when he announced the news to his friends and family.

He should also publicly thank the North Charleston Police Department for not citing him, even though they acknowledged he was at fault for the accident he caused when he cut off another driver in his patrol car and slammed on the brakes, forcing that driver to hit him from behind.”

DRoseDARs

Losing the argument, your posts are what that looks like.

DRoseDARs

Please quote the exact part where I “defend[ed] the right to slowly cruise in the left lane” or stfu. Now you’re just getting desperate.

TuxedoCartman

Which makes so much no sense to me. He basically just got a note that says, “Hey, you were responsible, in case any insurance agencies ask,” but that was it. I think even a wealthy white civilian in a nice car would be looking at a hefty ticket, if not jail time, for that kind of stunt.

TuxedoCartman

My willful jackassery?! Says the person defending the right to slowly cruise in the left lane? Get stuffed, jackass.

TuxedoCartman

Hey Rose… get the stupid out of your ears, and leave that strawman alone.

Ninong

Maybe he’ll get a job with TSA as airport security? Then he would get to escort people out of the airport if they refuse to obey orders when going through the screening line.

DRoseDARs

He’ll be working with a private security firm in 5… 4… 3…

Ninong

It is clear from that part of the encounter that was actually recorded on video and posted online that the Onslow County Sheriff’s Deputy was driving a couple of miles below the speed limit in the fast lane next to another vehicle in the other lane. No doubt the driver of the other vehicle was not about to increase his speed because he probably felt that the Sheriff’s car driving next to him was trying to tempt him into doing something — like maybe driving a few miles over the limit — that would result in a moving violation. It amounted to a virtual rolling road block, something the highway patrol will often do when they want to deliberately delay traffic for one reason or another.

What is really incriminating on the video is that after the driver with the cell phone video was able to pass both cars once a third lane became available, the sheriff’s deputy speeded up to pass him so that he could pull in front of him and then stop on his brakes to cause a rear-end collision. That much is not in doubt. The North Charleston Police incident reports states that the Onslow County Deputy “contributed to the accident.”

The Onslow County Sheriff called him in and told him he was being relieved of his duties and reassigned to detention (county jail duty). He chose to resign instead. Maybe he just doesn’t have the temperment for law enforcement work.

Ninong

The deputy has no one to blame but himself for acting like a fool. That’s not the way he was trained and not the way a responsible, adult law enforcement officer would act. He’s paid to protect and serve the public, not act like a juvenile delinquent engaging in road rage just because he thinks he can get away with it. I wonder what else he thought he could get away with? I wonder if he has been tricked or “bailted” into acting a fool before?

He blames the loss of his job on the “irate driver with the cell phone” who “baited” him into acting irresponsible. It wasn’t his fault. He was “baited” by that other driver with the cell phone and he “fell for it hook, line and sinker.” Yeah, right. And the other guy caused him to deliberately damage Onslow County property and endanger lives with his little road rage performance in another jurisdiction.

silas1898

Thanks. Of course the “light flashing” can’t be confirmed. A weak attempt to rationalize his bonehead move. The video driver may have been tailgating by middle of nowhere standards, but that was nothing for an urban area. 80 mph one car length apart is standard, until it all jams up. Happy to read he “resigned”.

DRoseDARs

For all the back-and-forth going on in this thread, this bit of news should make everyone happy.

Except the deputy.

DRoseDARs

According to some(many) commentors here, there is no such thing as tailgating. I’ve just learned that at least one of these tailgating-denialists shares Nevadan roads with me. That disturbs me.

DRoseDARs

No, the video driver wasn’t tailgating the cop… except for the parts of the video where he recorded himself tailgating the cop. Did you completely skip over the beginning of the video and jump in after the video drivers had passed the cop? Seriously, what is so goddamned difficult to understand about the concept of tailgating? If you’re following so closely that you cannot safely stop without hitting the vehicle in front of you, you’re tailgating. That is what the video driver did in the first half of the video. The second half of the video clearly shows the cop engaging Road Rage mode and deliberately causing an accident, but people need to stop pretending the first half of the video didn’t happen. Also, rubbish to the notion that cops always drive the posted speed limit to calm traffic. I’ve passed plenty of cruisers while I was adhering to the limit. Fuck them for initiating traffic jams with people too cowardly to legally pass them. Ain’t nobody got time fo’ that.

DRoseDARs

Methinks m’lady doth protest too much. Love how you changed your argument to something that I wasn’t even talking about. I’m sorry if you’re too ignorant and full of yourself to understand that if you follow someone too closely while traveling at freeway speeds, you don’t have enough stopping distance to avoid hitting the vehicle in front of you. I just hope your willful jackassery doesn’t get you or someone else killed. And let’s talk about the difference between an accident at 5mph vs an accident at 55mph. Tell me again that speed doesn’t kill. Safe driving practices mitigate the risks, such as NOT following so closely the vehicle in front of you that you can’t safely stop without hitting them.

Swami_Binkinanda

Private citizens have those things too. Ever look at a Cabela’s catalog? Ham radio? Also the lessons of Millenium Challenge 2002. Assuming that the police and guard will follow orders against Americans in an uprising and not walk away or go home. The rest go to protect the infrastructure and the wealthy and the uprising either burns up its own neighborhood (Detroit, Oakland, LA) or gets some changes made (VRA, CRA).

Swami_Binkinanda

It did. September 11 happens once every year, just like clockwork. Eerie, no?

sword

I owned a Mustang Mach I and was traveling through Wisconsin at below the speed limit (I had set the cruise control to less than the limit). It was about 2AM and a car came up behind me so close that I could not see his headlights, I estimate that his front bumper was no more than 1-2 feet behind me.
I was curious to see what he was going to do…so I just kept traveling. After about 10 minutes or so…the car slammed on his accelerator and shot by me at least 20-30 mph above the speed limit. And then slowed back down to the speed limit, It was a Wisconsin Highway Patrol Car. He never turned on his flashing lights…he just kept on driving. When someone tailgates you, especially at night, you tend to accelerate to give yourself some room, I believe that the officer was trying to get me to go above the speed limit to be able to give me a ticket for speeding, He saw a sports car and thought he could give out another ticket for his quota,
I laughed at him when I saw the same car sitting on a curve waiting for some else.

cole3244

protect and serve, but who, not us.

olandp

Actually on the basic level, with astrology being bullshit, they do. It amazes me that someone with half a brain can believe that the exact position of the stars and planets at the moment of one’s birth can predetermine one’s life. If astrology is true and works, why didn’t it predict, in advance, September 11?

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

“cops are to enforce the laws, protect and serve the public, not terrorize the general citizens of this country.” Nobody has believed that in several generations. Cops are the enemy, unless proven otherwise. In CA they like to burn alive their own.

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

no they don’t

Buford

$20 says the cop had been drinking… hence, he’s not stopping after his road rage ‘brake check’ turned into actual car-to-car contact.

melbach007

Had the cop been armed he could of prevented this….oh wait he was. I guess sometimes idiots carry guns.

Ninong

The TV report says the officer was “cited” in the incident report as causing the minor collision but “the officer was not ticketed.”

http://www.ryanstake.net RyansTake

once had a similar experience… was going home from college and a nondescript cop (who I didn’t realize was a cop) just *had* to get in front of me… since it was a dick move and there was no traffic, i matched speeds… until he went something like 75, then i let him go. he gets in front of me and starts driving really slow, so i pass him.

then the whole things starts all over again and i get pissed and match speeds even when he starts going really fast… until all of a sudden he flashes his lights to show he’s a cop and scares the freaking daylights out of me… a clear move of dickish intimidation.

he didn’t pull me over, though part of me thinks he must have been off duty, or because I could have reported it … it was just to intimidate me. I really wish I had a camera back then to have caught that on camera, too. scared the living daylights out of me and could have caused an accident.

—

posted from phone, please excuse bad grammar, etc.

TuxedoCartman

Thank you for this update. Wow… handled WAY better than I expected by the driver who was videotaping AND North Charleston Police! (Call me a cynic if you must, but I have zero trust in that “thin blue line,” and am always surprised to see cops policing their own, even just a little. And I say “little” in this case because do you honestly believe you or I would have walked away without a hefty ticket or even criminal charges?) The fact that NCPD cited the deputy gives me hope for this world!

http://www.ryanstake.net RyansTake

once had a similar experience… was going home from college and a nondescript cop (who I didn’t realize was a cop) just *had* to get in front of me… since it was a dick move and there was no traffic, i matched speeds… until he went something like 75, then i let him go. he gets in front of me and starts driving really slow, so i pass him.

then the whole things starts all over again and i get pissed and match speeds even when he starts going really fast… until all of a sudden he flashes his lights to show he’s a cop and scares the freaking daylights out of me… a clear move of dickish intimidation.

he didn’t pull me over, though part of me thinks he must have been off duty, or because I could have reported it … it was just to intimidate me. I really wish I had a camera back then to have caught that on camera, too.

http://www.facebook.com/monoceros.forth Monoceros Forth

As if we needed more proof that nothing moistens the undies of a right-winger like an authoritarian bully-boy.

Ninong

Update: The Onslow County, NC sheriff’s deputy, Craig Culpepper, no longer works there. He chose to “resign.” He blames the driver of the car with the dash-cam for “baiting” him by daring to drive behind him and flash his lights and motion to him to get out of the fast lane just because he was going only 50 mph.

That was why he decided to teach the guy a lesson. He allowed him to pass and then pulled back in front of him. He pumped his brakes, causing Chad Walton, the driver of the dash-cam car, to bump into his cruiser. Both Chad Walton and NC Sheriff’s Deputy Craig Culpepper proceeded to a shopping mall parking lot where the deputy apparently planned to have the dash-cam driver charged with rear-ending his cruiser. Actually Deputy Culpepper followed Walton to the parking lot, not knowing that Walton was on the phone the entire time giving the 911 operator a blow-by-blow description of what was going on. As both drivers got out of their vehicles, Walton can be heard on the 911 tape yelling at the deputy to keep his distance and wait for the North Charleston Police to arrive on scene.

Walton says North Charleston Police responded and, after viewing the video, cited the deputy for being at fault. The officer was not ticketed. Sheriff Ed Brown of Onslow County, NC has not yet accepted any phone calls and has not yet returned any phone calls to the media attempting to get a comment from him on this incident. North Charleston Police have not responded to media requests for comment.

Ninong

He says he went to South Carolina to participate in a training course to become a K-9 officer. It was a private course that he paid for himself in hopes of becoming a K-9 officer. He blames the driver of the car with the dash cam for “baiting” him by driving behind him and flashing his lights for him to pull over just because he was being a jerk by driving 50 mph in the fast lane, thus blocking traffic in a different state.

Because the NC deputy was pissed off at the SC man for having the audacity to expect him to get out of the fast lane, he decided to teach him a lesson by cutting in front of him and then suddenly hitting his brakes to cause the accident.

Ninong

If that’s the case, Matt, then why did Sheriff Ed Brown remove Deputy Craig Culpepper from his job? The official explanation is that Culpepper chose to “resign.” So why did the sheriff do that to poor Deputy Culpepper if Deputy Culpepper didn’t act like a jerk?

Try to keep up next time before you make a fool of yourself.

TuxedoCartman

I’ve heard Nevada is starting to actually enforce those laws, and nothing could make me happier. Why, if they start handing out tickets for failure to indicate while making a turn, why I might just be so happy ill have to give each and every officer a big ol’ kiss right on the lips!

TuxedoCartman

And local laws are never wrong, or full of WTFery, are they? Here’s some driver’s ed for you: a person who is DELIBERATELY impeding traffic by traveling in the outermost lane at a rate of speed lower than the vehicles behind him, is a bigger danger than someone who’s just speeding. End of story. Speed doesn’t kill, it’s unpredictable driving conditions that cause fatal accidents. If you’re in the outside lane, you should be in the process of passing people. If you’re in the outside lane and someone is coming up from behind faster than you, MOVE OVER WHEN YOU CAN!!! There is NO excuse for any car to be pacing that slowly in the left lane as that sheriff’s car was doing. If you’re on a six lane or wider highway, and the person in the middle lane is going slower than you, only pass them on the left! For fuck’s sake, these are very simple, very basic road rules which are so goddamn easy to follow (and are, in other countries I’ve been to), and would save thousands of lives and billions of dollars in repair bills a year, if people would just let go of their fucking egos and follow them! Bonus? We all get where we’re going faster, and with less stress.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=506841617 Matt Pirkel

To the author John Aravosis, I understand being a liberal makes you believe you have the right to piss poor inaccurate reporting, but there was not an accident in this video, nor was there one caused after this video. Why don’t you try to do a little journalistic research prior to spewing your garbage. The Freedom of the Press isn’t the Freedom to be piss poor press. Oh and, “A Great Nation Deserves the Truth”? Some credibility, scum bag

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=506841617 Matt Pirkel

At no time in this video was this guy tailgating the cop, until the cop cut him off, following in the same lane doesn’t constitute as tailgating.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=506841617 Matt Pirkel

Cop is from NC, this is in SC

Mike_in_Houston

That’s what I normally do as well. If it’s night, sometimes he will put on his brights in response (daytime tailgaters are normally men so I’m presuming the same is the case at night), but I can flip my rear-view mirror to the night setting to compensate for that. Eventually he will move on.

samizdat

Well, I think ‘audacity’ was meant as a bit of snark, smart-assery at least.

http://www.facebook.com/matthew.lewis.92167 Matthew Lewis

audacity to pass a cop who’s going under the speed limit? really? cops are to enforce the laws, protect and serve the public, not terrorize the general citizens of this country. THIS IS AMERICA. It is so anti american it is truthfully criminal. Those who make, interpret or enforce the law should be held to a higher standard of that law not free reign to break any law they see fit with no accountability for doing such. I am a veteran who served a country founded on democracy and freedom not entitlement and fascism.

olandp

Everyone has “very similar” astrological charts.

TiberiusB

Except I thought this took place in Charleston SC, not North Carolina. Maybe the law in SC allows for cutting off offenders and causing collisions if they are tailgating.

mr_ed

Often police travel away from their home patch to pick up prisoners. I’ve found that county sheriff deputies are more poorly trained than highway patrol officers. Your expectations of quality police work from a deputy should be much lower. Our local sheriffs never, ever wear seat belts, instead buckling them behind their seats so they aren’t in the way. Some are apparently so overweight the belts wouldn’t fit anyway. Combine this with all they carry on their belts, and it’s no surprise that they don’t use the seat belts.
Thus, when they’re in an accident, they more heavily injured, making them heroes because of their injuries. Same with some local cops.

It was a NORTH CAROLINA Sheriff’s Deputy driving a NORTH CAROLINA Sheriff’s K-9 unit car in the state of South Carolina, which is what adds an extra element to the ‘event.’

mirror

Easy to get it a little mixed up or make assumptions because it was a NC cop.

Tatts

It’s SOUTH Carolina. North Carolina is a different state! Charleston is in South Carolina (and West Virginia).

And it wasn’t caught on “film”.

The cop did wrong in braking, but the driver was tailgating and asking for it. And police everywhere drive right at the speed limit in the left lane as a means of traffic calming–it slows speeders down (if just for a while). The jackass recording the video should have just chilled.

DRoseDARs

You really need to brush up on your local traffic law. It is illegal to “tailgate” in North Carolina, as this video driver was doing. There is a reason you were told in Drivers Ed to not follow the vehicle in front of you too closely…

nicho

In some states, going below the speed limit in the left lane is a traffic offense — and will get you a ticket.

ComradeRutherford

In Vermont there are huge signs on the highways that read: “Keep Right Except to Pass”. You can always tell the Massachusetts and other out-of-state drivers because they ONLY drive in the left lane no matter what the traffic is like.

ComradeRutherford

OK, other than the name is there any real difference?

ComradeRutherford

Instead, cops that routinely lie and cause crimes are called ‘heroes’.

ComradeRutherford

“The pigs in my neighborhood are a bigger threat than the crackheads and the hookers.”

I lived in Brooklyn Heights in the 1990s (I was the ONLY white guy on the block). I was far more worried about the cops than I was worried about the dudes hanging out on the corner.

http://www.facebook.com/kevin.jones.9699 Kevin Jones

there is nothing in the local news about this. nothing.

TuxedoCartman

Cop was poke-assing along in the passing lane, blocking traffic. It’s not tail-gating when you’re in the far-left lane; it’s indicating that you wish to get around someone traveling slower than yourself. I’ll never understand this self-centered attitude Americans have that they’re entitled to travel at whatever speed in whatever lane they want. (And on-topic: this cop needs to be fired, then prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law).

ComradeRutherford

The ending of Clockwork Orange is true… The violent gang members all become cops.

Tor

My solution to tailgaters is to slow way down. They quickly lose interest.

Tor

Back in the day when I dabbled in astrology, a teacher said that police and criminals tend to have very similar astrological charts. For whatever that’s worth.

A W

Ugh, I hate the state I live in. What happened to you North Carolina?!?!?!?

http://www.facebook.com/emmett.grogan1 Emmett Grogan

As Obama keeps reminding everyone, “Nothing’s off the table.” They’ll nuke noncombatants like they did at Hiroshima and Nagasaki..don’t forget the nukes.

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

If cops didn’t abuse authority regularly and habitually lied about it under oath in a courtroom they would be fired.

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

Yep, Sebastian at Cabeza de Lobo

Silversalty

I drive a cab in NYC so I’ve seen a few situations of cops out of control. One similar to this situation, but without any possible suggestion of tailgating.

I was entering a highway on an on-ramp from a service road. Driving in the rightmost lane was a NYPD highway patrol car. That patrol car then got next to me and matched my speed. As I slowed the patrol car slowed. Finally, when we were both well below the highway speed limit (and I was running out of room for entry) I sped up (never going above the speed limit) and entered the highway, well ahead of the patrol car. At that point the patrol car turned on its flashers (police flashers) and I slowed and pulled back to the right (what was left of the now hash marked entry lane area) expecting to be stopped for some BS. Instead, the patrol car passed me. I re-entered the highway, staying well behind the patrol car. Next, the patrol car slammed on its brakes. But I was well behind and no accident was even close to being possible.

It’s about control and dominance, sometimes just for kicks. They’re a higher form of being in their minds and if they want us to eat their shit, we’re supposed to say “Thank you.”

http://adgitadiaries.com/ karmanot

ppppffffftttt

Dick_Woodcock

I had an old boss that was a cop. He said they would never drive the speed limit, either 5 faster or slower. If they drove slow, they wanted people passing them. They seemed to clog up traffic more when they did the speed limit, because no one would pass them.

mirror

Hit and run is a crime punishable by jail time in WA. So is reckless driving. So is reckless endangerment. All punishable by jail time. I’m sure there are exactly analogous crimes on the books in S.C. In WA, not only would a civilian hit and run driver by cited, they stand a good chance of being arrested on the spot and have to post bail.. Police privilege to commit crimes crosses state lines.

DRoseDARs

Except the video, and local news reports, show this is exactly what the cop DIDN’T do. While I’m wondering why the video cuts a few seconds after the impact (you KNOW there’s more going on here) we do see the cop speed up and not turn on their lights, nor did they have them on when they followed the video driver, pulled up along side, nor pass in front. This looks very much like a cop having road rage, rather than a cop trying to induce an unsafe driver to pull over for a little talk. I don’t know if you and I are disagreeing, but neither driver came out looking good in this video.

nicho

So, then the cop pulls him over and has a little talk with him — not try to cause an accident.

nicho

OK. They have aircraft, drones, helicopters, armored vehicles, bombs, infra-red detection devices, night vision equipment, incendiary devices, tasers, water cannon, sound wave machines, flash-bang grenades, body armor, fully automatic weapons, and the National Guard at their disposal — most of which you’re not allowed to have. Also, all they have to do is shut down cell towers, the Internet, and gasoline pumps and the Second Amendment Rambos will be wandering around the trailer park alternately stroking themselves and their popguns.

DRoseDARs

Had those attempts a couple of times. Bored cop + ticket quota to meet = Bullshit like what you describe.

DRoseDARs

I’ve passed several cops over the years (me going the speed limit, them slower than) on the freeway and so far I’ve not had anything like THIS happen. Jesus what a prick.

Snaggletooth

I’m not advocating for it, but I have a hard time believing that 1 cop can outmatch 4,000 of the even most sick, elderly, and infirm people.

DRoseDARs

Dude was totally tailgating the cop on a highway at highway speeds. Doesn’t excuse the cop’s actions even remotely, but let’s not dismiss the video driver’s unsafe and illegal (depending on local law) actions here.

ymr049c

OMG, he should be criminally prosecuted and never eligible for public service again. Not just “hopefully fired”. This is such an abuse of authority and poison to the rule of law. And a threat to public safety.

nicho

Yup. Very easily.

http://www.facebook.com/monoceros.forth Monoceros Forth

Reminds me of driving through Puyallup some years ago and getting tailgated by a cop who I’m pretty sure was trying to bait me into speeding. I didn’t and eventually he just took off and zoomed past.

HolyMoly

That’s what happens when you have the audacity to pass a cop…even when he’s going under the limit. I think they like it when they’re going slow and everyone is afraid to pass them. Gives them a sense of empowerment. You pass them? Watch out.

Snaggletooth

This is what I’m saying, I’ll give up my shit if they will too. It’s called defusing a situation. If the cops are unarmed and the populace is unarmed we can get shooting under wraps. Innocents don’t need to get caught in a crossfire and mass shooting rampages drop. They never would of course, being power hungry cowards and all. They don’t like fair fights and they don’t want to have to respect the citizens they encounter.

FuzzyRabbit

This (and worse) is what happens when the police think they are an occupying army and the citizens are the enemy.

nicho

Christopher Dorner had lots of guns and was well trained in their use. When the cops decided to burn him alive, all those guns didn’t help one bit.

Snaggletooth

Yep, and if he’s really unlucky there will be a “show” trial that will cost his county a fortune and then clear him of wrong doing.

Hue-Man

Logical extension => Russia today, USA tomorrow. “The sheer size of
the country, combined with lax — and often corrupt — law enforcement,
and a legal system that rarely favors first-hand accounts of traffic
collisions has made dash cams all but a requirement for motorists.”http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/02/russian-dash-cams/

““You can
get into your car without your pants on, but never get into a car
without a dash cam,” Aleksei Dozorov, a motorists’ rights activist in
Russia told Radio Free Europe last year.”

http://www.facebook.com/monoceros.forth Monoceros Forth

I expect he’ll get a nice paid vacation–sorry, “administrative leave”–and eventually be cleared by internal affairs.

Snaggletooth

hopefully, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Snaggletooth

So how long do you think it will take before the trolls come in yet again with the “one bad apple” excuse? Also how long until we start talking about real police reform? I have a trade to offer, I’ll give up my gun rights if the cops do to.